Russia supports Syria and its people, not Assad: Foreign Ministry Spokesperson

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Russia does not support President Bashar al-Assad, rather it supports the Syrian state and its people, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

“We are officially accused of supporting Assad as a person, and this is not true,” Zakharova told Kurdistan 24. “In fact, we support Syria and its people, and more accurately the Syrian state.”

The Spokesperson noted that many countries in the Middle East tried to become “democratic countries,” pointing to Libya and Iraq, but said they were greatly affected by the so-called Islamic State (IS) who “sought to establish a caliphate.”

Zakharova said the same scenario (IS establishing a caliphate) was a possibility for Syria and that because Russia is closer, it would have been “most affected by the collapse of Syria more than the United States.”

For this reason, Moscow moved its air forces to help the Syrian troops, she added.

Syria plunged into civil war in 2011 a few years before the 2014 emergence of IS in the country and neighboring Iraq. The group took control of large swaths of territory in both countries, murdering and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

Russia entered the fray in September 2015 to support the Syrian army in its campaign against the extremist group.

However, Russian forces have also attacked other anti-Assad rebel groups, turning the tide of the seven-year civil war in Assad’s favor.

The years-long conflict has killed nearly half-a-million people, displacing half of the country’s population, as well as causing considerable damage to Syria’s infrastructure.